


you make me wanna make mistakes

by springxdays



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, Fluff, M/M, Making Out, Na Jaemin-centric, Slow Burn, donghyuck and jaemin are best friends 4ever, donghyuck and jaemin whine about their crushes, everyones in love with renjun, hehe tove styrke, honestly this is donghyuck and jaemins platonic relationship-centric, jaemin is WHIPPED for these two boys, jaemin works at a coffee shop, jeno is sweet af, like the best friends they are, night vibes, renjun is oblivious to everyones feelings, slow burn? i think lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25774549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springxdays/pseuds/springxdays
Summary: Jaemin can't remember how his love for Renjun started-- if he thinks back far enough, he can recall late night subway trips to the convenience store near Jaemin's place (okay, he admits it's kind of far, but it's way cheaper than anywhere else). He had laughed at Renjun's grumbles about unsanitary public transportation back then, had laughed in the cheap glow of the lights on the trains; had touched his lips and smiled, hit with the sudden realization that he wouldn't mind living in this warm feeling for the rest of his life.And then one night he meets Jeno.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Huang Ren Jun/Na Jaemin, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	you make me wanna make mistakes

It’s strangely quiet on campus, even for this time of night: there are no trees rustling and the sound of the wind blowing is light, barely noticeable. There aren’t any muffled whispers from students sneaking out of their dorms or footsteps coming from the streets outside campus either. A single car makes its way down the road outside of campus, bringing with it a whooshing noise, and it turns quiet again.

It’s on this eerily silent night that Jaemin goes to the other dorm building to get a Red Bull from the vending machines.

Jaemin passes by the library, turns right to get to the center of campus. He pauses to look at the cherry blossoms, almost in bloom. They’re captivating, beautiful, even though they’re not at their peak yet. He shakes thoughts of flowers from his mind and runs past the cherry blossoms at a slow jog. Somewhere along the way his slow jog speeds up until he’s full on sprinting across the campus at midnight. He can feel the wind brush against his bare skin, and when he gets to the vending machine he’s panting and has to lean against the wall for a moment.

Jaemin isn’t really sure how he ended up here. He’s not stupid, he knows that; he wouldn’t have gotten to his sophomore year in college if he was completely useless in school subjects. He has no trouble memorizing dates and formulas, and he can even sometimes be good with words if he wants to. He does, however, have absolutely no common sense, and would rather spend his free time playing Call of Duty and taking naps instead of studying for tests and quizzes.

But time passes quickly; it’s his fifth day back and he already has a quiz for his math class that he hasn’t started studying for at all. Jaemin really needs to stop doing this. His quiz is in exactly ten hours, _and_ in the morning, and he’s currently stewing over all his life choices in front of a vending machine.

He sighs and crouches down a bit to scan for the Red Bulls in the vending machine. He recites the number in his head (C8, C8, C8), presses the buttons on the keypad, and pushes in a dollar bill.

The drink starts to fall out of its spot in the machine and Jaemin exhales in relief: he’ll finally be able to get caffeinated and start cramming for his quiz.

And then the drink gets stuck.

He curses, kicking the machine once or twice, before sighing and crouching down on the floor. He loses his balance and tumbles onto the floor.

He doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry so he just sits on the floor and glares at the vending machine.

A laugh comes from somewhere near him— he looks up to see a tall guy with short black hair wearing a black sweatshirt and plaid pajama pants leaning on a wall maybe six feet away from him and laughing down at him. He directs his stare to the guy. 

“Who are you and what are you doing at my vending machine?” Jaemin glares at him.

“Uh, this is just my dorm building, I wanted to get a snack,” the guy laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re _not_ from this dorm building. I haven’t seen you around.”

“Um, yeah, this isn’t my dorm building. I kinda ran all the way across campus to get to the good dorm building that has vending machines.” 

The guy raises his eyebrow.

“But this stupid,” Jaemin slaps the side of the vending machine, “damn,” Jaemin slaps it harder, “thing,” Jaemin slaps it even harder, “isn’t working.”

The guy pushes himself off the wall and walks to the vending machine. He laughs when he sees the Red Bull stuck in the vending machine.

“A Red Bull, huh? What do you need a Red Bull for? You’re already awake at 12 am.”

Jaemin stretches his feet out and lies down on the floor, head hitting the cold concrete softly. He spreads out his arms and says, “I kinda have a math quiz at ten in the morning. Tomorrow. That I haven’t studied for.”

The guy laughs, again, throwing his head back. Jaemin sits up a little and watches him with a smile. It’s a cute laugh. 

“Well, I think I should get going now,” Jaemin says, sitting up fully and pulling out a five dollar bill from his pocket. He stands up and walks back to the vending machine. “I’ll just buy another one, to knock out the first one.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” says the guy. 

Jaemin raises his eyebrow at him. 

“I can pay for it, if you want,” the guy clarifies, pulling out a small leather wallet. “I mean, I wouldn’t want a cute boy like you to waste all your money on Red Bulls. And I’m getting a snack anyways, so.” The guy blushes.

Jaemin starts to blush a bit too. “Are you sure? I mean I guess you can if you want,” he says, resting his hand on the back of his neck nervously.

Jaemin watches the guy as he clicks the numbers in on the keypad and inserts a five into the machine. The Red Bull he buys crashes into the other one and they both tumble down to the bottom of the machine, a pack of Skittles following. The guy crouches down and picks up all the snacks.

“Here,” the guy smiles, holding out the Red Bulls. “Now you get two Red Bulls for the price of one.”

Jaemin takes them. He looks back at the guy’s face. He’s still smiling, nose scrunched up, lips closed, head a little tilted, and Jaemin suddenly wants to be friends with him. 

“Thanks,” Jaemin smiles. 

They stand there for an awkward twenty or thirty seconds before Jaemin blurts out, “What’s your name?”

The guy looks at him with an amused expression on his face.

Fuck. Jaemin shouldn’t have said that. “I’m sorry if that was invasive, sorry, I just haven’t really seen anyone who looks like you, uh, around campus or anything, and I wanted to know.”

The other guy laughs. “It’s okay, I don’t mind. My name’s Lee Jeno.”

“Jeno. Pretty name,” Jaemin smiles. “I’m Jaemin. Na Jaemin.”

“Okay.” Jeno laughs.

“Okay.” Jaemin says, smiling. “Thanks for the drink, really. You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s okay,”Jeno says. “I guess that just means you owe me now.”

Jaemin laughs. “Sure.”

Jeno turns around and starts walking back to the stairs, raising a hand in mock salute. “Well, see you next time, Red Bull.”

  
  
  


——

  
  
  


Jaemin groans. And groans. And groans again.

Somehow, in his haste to study last night, (or, he should say, very early morning today) he had forgotten that he had a shift at the coffee shop at twelve pm. 

Working at the coffee shop he works at is usually enjoyable; his late evening shifts usually don’t have many customers, and so he can spend most of his shift on his phone or talking to his friends, who, for some reason, like to poke in during his shifts to bother him. But today he has a twelve pm shift, right after his quiz has ended, and none of his friends have texted him to tell him they were going to pop in.

Now he’s standing at the cash register and leaning on the counter, taking someone’s order, and he honestly just wishes he were at home, taking a nap.

His phone buzzes. He picks it up. The screen reads texts from “donghyuck😡😡🤪🤪😔😔.”

He sighs, opening his messages app and looking at the texts.

donghyuck😡😡🤪🤪😔😔

that quiz was absolute bullshit 

donghyuck😡😡🤪🤪😔😔

i’m coming to the coffee shop

He types out a reply and puts his phone down, turning around to start making the order.

amazing looking forward to it😚😚

The other thing about his math class is that the math genius Donghyuck also goes to it, and so with every test and quiz grade he has to compare himself to Donghyuck. (Spoiler alert: Donghyuck is always better than him.)

To be honest, he doesn’t even think he did so bad on the quiz, thanks to the two Red Bulls he had before studying and the amount of cramming he did on the walk to the lecture room. But Donghyuck, despite barely ever studying, always manages to get As and A+s on everything. 

Donghyuck says it’s because he takes notes and pays attention in class, but Jaemin thinks that’s bullshit.

He finishes making the drink and hands it to the woman, going back to the counter to take somebody’s else’s order.

He takes the man’s money, puts it in the cash register, and turns around to start making his drink. He sighs again, watching the coffee from the machine sputter into the cup. This was going to be a long shift. 

Twenty minutes later the crowd seems to have calmed down, him and his coworker Taeyong working to try and get everyone’s order done, and the line has, for the most part, gone away.

He relaxes, leaning on the counter. 

There’s a fair amount of people sitting in the coffee shop, chatting quietly with their drinks or doing their work silently at a desk by themselves. The warm atmosphere of the shop sways him a bit, makes him dizzy with warmth and a little tired. He looks over the customers in the store and smiles to himself. Working here, especially during busy shifts, isn’t always fun, but he loves the shop and his coworkers, so it's enjoyable at most times.

“Oh my god, I’m so tired,” he turns to the side to complain to Taeyong, who’s standing on his right, wiping sweat off his forehead and checking his phone. Jaemin runs a hand over his face. “I went to bed _way_ too late last night, had to study for some quiz I forgot about.”

Taeyong puts down his phone and looks at him. “Jaaemin, you need to get more sleep,” he complains. “You have eye bags, when did you even go to sleep last night?”

Taeyong starts to inspect his face, resting his thumb on Jaemin’s eye bags and rubbing into the soft skin there.

“Aish, get off me! You’re not my mom, I’ll be fine!”

Taeyong laughs softly but backs off, taking his hands off Jaemin’s face. “Okay, okay, I get it. Just get more sleep tonight, okay?”

“You shouldn’t be telling me this when I’m not even sure that _you_ sleep,” grumbles Jaemin. 

“I didn’t come here to be attacked,” cries Taeyong, picking up his phone again.

Jaemin turns around when he hears the bell on the door jingle and smiles when he sees Donghyuck. 

“Hyuck! Oh my god, finally, you cameee,” Jaemin whines. “Why’d it take you so long? I was waiting here for you, all alone—”

“You had me,” Taeyong interjects. Jaemin glares at him and continues speaking.

“Yeah, sure. Anyways. How do you think you did on the quiz?”

Donghyuck walks up to the counter where Jaemin and Taeyong are standing and sits on one of the barstools.

“I mean, I don’t know, hopefully something good? The quiz wasn’t that hard, you know, but I’m not sure.”

“The quiz wasn’t that hard? Are you kidding me?” Jaemin cries. “I had to look over my answers like, five times before I handed it in. How do you even do it? I’m like ten times smarter than you, and you never even study, but you somehow manage to get an A+ in literally everything.”

“Because I’m not somebody who loves procrastinating and complaining about his assignments instead of _actually_ doing them, unlike you,” laughs Donghyuck. “Also, you have like, _no_ common sense.”

“I second that,” Taeyong calls over from the wall he’s leaning at a couple feet away.

“Taeyong, just because you’re actually a productive college student and spend your time studying and taking notes doesn’t mean you’re better than me,” Jaemin rolls his eyes.

“It actually kind of does…” Donghyuck trails off.

“Whatever,” Jaemin sighs. 

“Soo, if you’re done moping, could I get a cappuccino?” Donghyuck asks, smiling sweetly.

  
  
  


——

They’re standing in the convenience store, two silhouettes side by side, hands brushing but never touching. Renjun’s wearing one of his old sweatshirts and Jaemin’s holding two packets of shin ramen. 

Renjun’s taking _way_ too long to pick which kind of pocky he wants, as always. Honestly, Jaemin should be a little more annoyed, because it’s already, like, 9:30, and he’s been whispering “strawberry or matcha, strawberry or matcha” under his breath for at least ten minutes, but Jaemin’s just been staring at Renjun with a smile on his face. 

Jaemin can't remember how his love for Renjun started-- if he thinks back far enough, he can recall late night subway trips to the convenience store near Jaemin's place (okay, he admits it's kind of far, but it's way cheaper than anywhere else). He had laughed at Renjun's grumbles about unsanitary public transportation back then, had laughed in the cheap glow of the lights on the trains; had pressed his fingers to his lips and smiled, hit with the sudden realization that he wouldn't mind living in this warm feeling for the rest of his life.

“Okay, strawberry it is,” Renjun decides, eyes lingering on the matcha flavors but straying to the strawberry. He grabs a box of strawberry pocky from the shelf and looks up. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Jaemin says, laughing. 

“Nothing,” says Renjun, shaking the thought from his head. “Let’s go.”

They pay for their stuff and leave the store. It’s practically black out when they head outside, street lamps flickering in the dark, and Renjun grabs Jaemin’s wrist and pulls him towards the subway when he crouches down in the middle of the street, opening his phone camera to take a photo.

“Hey! What’d you do that for?” Jaemin complains, lowering his phone and turning it off.

They make it to the stairs heading down to the tunnels, and Renjun laughs, loud and echoing in the quiet space. “Jaem, you can't just stand in the middle of a busy street, people are gonna bump into you.”

“There was literally nobody on that street, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jaemin argues as he swipes his card into the turnstile. 

“Whatever,” Renjun rolls his eyes, following him. “What movie are we gonna watch?”

“I don’t know, whatever you want,” responds Jaemin, walking further into the subway and leaning against the wall. 

Renjun stands next to him. “We should watch Mean Girls.”

Jaemin groans dramatically and Renjun giggles. “Oh my god, no, not _again_. Let’s watch something romantic or something, none of those weird teen movies that you like.”

Renjun laughs. “Romantic movies?”

“What can I say, I’m a romantic at heart,” Jaemin retorts.

“Aww, the popular, extroverted Jaemin is secretly a romantic at heart?” Renjun teases. “Who would’ve thought?”

“Shut up,” Jaemin grumbles. But he can’t deny it—it’s true.

The train comes then, and Jaemin turns his head to look at the train as it settles into the station. The train slows down to a stop and the doors open. Jaemin walks into the train first, Renjun trailing behind him carrying a plastic bag of snacks.

The train is practically empty, save from some strangers sitting on the other side of the car, and they settle into the dirty yellow seats. 

“Do you know what we should watch?” Renjun perks up, smiling adorning his soft features. “Harry Potter. Oh my god, we should watch the third one! The third one is _so_ good.”

And Jaemin doesn’t really like Harry Potter, especially not the movies, but Renjun’s smile is bright and lights up his heart with warmth. 

“Okay, fine, I can settle with that,” Jaemin grudgingly agrees. “The third one is definitely _not_ the best one, though; the fifth is so much better. At least for the books, I don’t know about the movies.”

“Are you kidding me? The fifth one is the best? Coming from the person who says that Sirius Black is his favorite character?”

“What? He’s a gay icon,” Jaemin mutters under his breath.

Renjun laughs.

The train shakes a little bit. The lights flicker off and flicker back on again, and they pass through yet another tunnel. 

“Jaemin, Sirius dies in the fifth book,” he tries to say, holding in his laughter.

“What? I knew that. Just… forgot.”

“Yeah, totally,” Renjun says, shaking his head. “Also, the fifth movie being the best one is absolute bullshit. You’re wrong. It’s the third one.”

“No, I’m totally right. The fifth one has, like, Bellatrix and stuff.” Jaemin says, laughing at Renjun’s horrified expression.

Sometimes he likes to pretend to know way less about Harry Potter than he actually does just to see Renjun’s reactions.

“Bellatrix and stuff?! Jaem, Bellatrix was a terrible person, even if she looked cool or whatever!” Renjun scoffs. “Honestly, I like Remus the best.”

Now it’s Jaemin’s turn to scoff. “That’s because you practically _are_ Remus. Too smart, too snarky, and has no friends.”

“I am _not_ snarky, Na Jaemin! Say that one more time and I’ll punch you.” 

“Sure, I don’t care.”

Renjun scowls. “Besides, you’re hanging out with me, so you must like _something_ about me, right?”

“Of course, Injunnie. You’re my best friend.” He grabs Renjun’s hand and intertwines it with his own before resting his head on Renjun’s shoulder.

“I’m your best friend?” Renjun asks, tentative. 

“Yeah. Yeah, you are.” Jaemin responds decidedly.

And then the train skitters to a stop, and the moment’s broken, but even when they get out of the train station they keep holding hands, clinging to each other like they give each other life.

  
  
  


——

  
  
  


Jaemin throws popcorn at the TV screen. “Booo, this movie sucks. Where’s the _action_ ? Where’s the _fighting_?”

Renjun reaches over to put his hand over Jaemin’s mouth. “Shut up,” he says without looking away from the screen. “I’m trying to watch this.”

Jaemin pries Renjun’s hand off his mouth. “Yeah, and I’m saying you _shouldn’t_ watch it, and pay attention to me instead.”

Renjun doesn’t bat an eye at Jaemin’s antics and stays leaned forward, enraptured by the screen. “I would take a bullet for Remus Lupin without hesitation.”

“Calm down, Renjun,” Jaemin laughs. “You don’t even need to die for Remus, he’s already dead.”

Jaemin knows he has fucked up when Renjun finally ( _finally_ ) turns away from the movie and stares at him with death in his eyes. “Say that again. Try me, Jaemin, say that again.”

“I said—”

He’s cut off when Renjun practically climbs on top of him where he’s laying on his back on the couch, and starts to tickle him. 

“I said,” he manages to get out through giggles and hiccups. “you don’t need to die for Remus— ah, ah, stop— because he’s—”

“Gonna murder you one of these days, I swear,” Renjun mutters under his breath, but there’s fondness in his voice and Jaemin can see the way his smile tugs upward at one corner.

When Renjun finally gets off of Jaemin, Renjuns cheeks are tinged red and he avoids Jaemin’s eyes. The arm that Renjun touched while he was leaning over Jaemin to tickle him feels warmer than usual, and he feels like the air in his lungs has disappeared. He catches his breath and smiles.

The thing about Jaemin and Renjun is that they have always been friends first. 

Even last winter; Jaemin’s eyes started to linger first, on Renjun’s eyes when they crinkled up during a laugh, and on the way his hair looked when he had spent the entire day watching Netflix and forgot to brush it, and on his expression in the early morning, squinty and defensive, when he was barely awake. And then second were his hands. They started to brush stray strands of hair away from Renjun’s face, and linger too long on Renjun’s shoulder when they hugged; they started to be drawn to Renjun’s soft left cheek when he was sleeping, and Renjun’s small hands, swinging by his sides when he walked. 

(Of course, he never acted on those last two, because Jaemin and Renjun were friends first, and maybe friends only.)

But he thinks the thing that makes it easy to fall for Renjun is that they’re friends _first_. Jaemin’s known him since the beginning of freshman year: he’s seen the way Renjun cries but also the way he laughs, the way he cheers and celebrates a victory. He’s overcome with a feeling of longing any time he sees Renjun sleep, a soft, blissfully empty expression on his face, and is hit with the urge to curl up next to him and protect him. But he’s also spent so many long summer afternoons sitting cross legged on that same bed, laughing at stupid jokes and eating popsicles with Renjun. He’s lived almost one year with Renjun by his side, one autumn, one winter and one spring, and it’s nearing the end of the first summer but he still feels like it’s the first day, like whenever he looks at Renjun his whole life is in front of him, waiting. He still has so much to learn about his friend: the way he likes his eggs cooked, his favorite cartoon show he watched when he was a kid, what species of dinosaur he thinks is the coolest. But he has time, he does; even if Renjun doesn’t know his feelings, even if he never will, Jaemin has time to learn. 

So it doesn’t matter to Jaemin if he’s the only one who feels a little too warm when they touch for too long, or who glances at Renjun again and again and far too often when they’re out with their other friends. He cares for Renjun, truly, and he’ll continue looking over him even if he loves him so much that it hurts to look at him sometimes.

They’re friends first, and he still feels at home laughing with Renjun over YouTube videos, sitting on the floor of his dorm and exchanging truths over potato chips and the milkshakes from Shake Shack. Renjun’s still one of the first people he goes to when he has to rant after going home to his family for the holidays, and they still have movie night almost every week, even if most nights it turns into a pillow fight because Jaemin has the lowest attention span of anybody either of them know. 

Jaemin will live for the moments in between, stray touches that Renjun thinks nothing of, brushes of their hands. He’ll hug Renjun in the street behind the convenience store and tell him he loves him in the hours of the early morning, when nothing he says really counts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soo this is my first fic!! and this is the first chapter!! oh my!!  
> ofc my first fic is norenmin lol, im literally a hoe for norenmin and in my opinion, the norenmin tag is way too dry so here you go! i am totally back on my polyamory bullshit:))  
> this probably won’t be the best bc its kinda a hot mess and also not edited by anyone other than me and honestly not really edited at all lmao im wayy too lazy to look over this more than once cause i am SO sick of reading my own writing. i kinda just wanted to write something, and maybe write norenmin so that somebody like me who is starved for content has at least one more semi-okay norenmin fic to read. this chapter is really disjointed so im sorry for that and literally only mentions jeno and donghyuck once and none of the other dream members bUT you will see them in next chapter if u decide u want to read my in depth character analysis for donghyuck. btw next chapter will come in either two days or a month please kindly dOnt get your hopes up cause youll get disappointed. i am also starting school so thats a valid excuse i guess. anyways, hope u enjoyed it n leave a comment if u did! cc:  
> can u tell i listened to stand by you by ace on repeat while writing this


End file.
